Americans Took Evacuation Into Their Own Hands

Ainslay Chibbo, an Indiana native married to a Lebanese working in Dubai, said she had to call friends in the United States and have them contact the State Department directly to get onto the Orient Queen's passenger list because she could not get through to the U.S. Embassy.

"If you weren't on the list, you didn't go," she said, describing efforts at an embassy-designated gathering point to board a bus to the port. "There were a lot of people who were not allowed on the bus."

Yesterday, she left with her husband and two sons, 10 and 18.

Roya Akhavan-Lovell of Haymarket in Prince William County said her mother and sister, who were visiting Beirut, contacted the embassy there about evacuating. But an embassy official told them they didn't have a plan, she said.

"Plan B was to drive to Syria," said Akhavan-Lovell, who was in constant contact with her relatives by phone and e-mail. Just before they left Beirut, her mother sent her an e-mail that said she would no longer be able to reach them on their phones.

"We were freaking out," Akhavan-Lowell recalled. "We were on pins and needles waiting to hear from them."

More than three hours later, she learned they had safely reached Damascus.

Last night, her mother and sister were to arrive in the United States on a commercial flight. Akhavan-Lowell's family planned to meet them at the airport with balloons and signs.

At the news conference, Harty acknowledged that some U.S. citizens had left Lebanon for Syria and then flown home from there.

"We do not encourage people to go over land on their own at this point," she said. "I am happy to see people who have done that have arrived safely home."

Correspondent Edward Cody in Beirut and staff writers Ray Rivera and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.